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steve1147 · March 6, 2011, 08:36 AM

Hello All,
With my recent accumulation of unknown lead and alloys I finally bought a Lee hardness tester.
Now, unless I'm doing something wrong, and I've repeated this several times, when I test the one pound ingots of smelted wheel weights, I get a reading of .050 (bhn: 20.9), but when I test the bullets recently cast from these same ingots (230 gn 45acp), I get a .055 (bhn: 17.2). Am I missing something here, does the smaller bullet just allow more expansion of the indent or did someone sneak some pure lead into my pot before the last casting???
Thanks! Steve W.

PS to above: While either of these looks fine and work fine for my .38 and .45acp's, I'm getting ready to start casting for my 40 s&w and it looks like I'll need to harden this up for it's high pressures. I've got 5# each of antimony(pre-alloyed with lead) and tin coming from Rotometals. Any experience of getting ww's up to proper hardness for .40 cal?

March 6, 2011, 08:36 AM	#1
steve1147 Senior Member Join Date: December 5, 2009 Location: Valles Mines, Missouri Posts: 142	Brinnell hardness discrepancies? Hello All, With my recent accumulation of unknown lead and alloys I finally bought a Lee hardness tester. Now, unless I'm doing something wrong, and I've repeated this several times, when I test the one pound ingots of smelted wheel weights, I get a reading of .050 (bhn: 20.9), but when I test the bullets recently cast from these same ingots (230 gn 45acp), I get a .055 (bhn: 17.2). Am I missing something here, does the smaller bullet just allow more expansion of the indent or did someone sneak some pure lead into my pot before the last casting??? Thanks! Steve W. PS to above: While either of these looks fine and work fine for my .38 and .45acp's, I'm getting ready to start casting for my 40 s&w and it looks like I'll need to harden this up for it's high pressures. I've got 5# each of antimony(pre-alloyed with lead) and tin coming from Rotometals. Any experience of getting ww's up to proper hardness for .40 cal? __________________ Circa 1964: Rocky to Bullwinkle: "But that trick never works!" But Bullwinkle tries it anyway...again and again Last edited by steve1147; March 6, 2011 at 08:50 AM.